Musing about
the “mysteries” his book delves into, Harvey allows that he didn’t intend to
write an encyclopedia of American cartooning. Said he: “All I’m doing with it
is shining a light into some of the corners of the nation’s cartooning that
have remained for too long too dim—to celebrate some of the medium’s
achievements and achievers that have faded too far into distant memory or that
have never been recognized at all. Throughout, my purpose is to illuminate the
arts of cartooning in order to enhance appreciation of the medium.”

Today’s
cartoonists are the insiders in the book’s title, he explained. They know most
of these tales. But not all of them. Many have never heard of Bill Hume, for
instance, or Bailin’ Wire Bill or Abe Martin or the Texas History Movies. Or
AWOL Wally. And almost none of them know that the longest running cartoon
character is a bird. And yet most of these names were once well-known and
familiar to vast numbers of readers.

And
although insiders may know most of the stories in broad outline, much of the
book wraps around fugitive tidbits, shreds and happy scraps, that are almost
unknown. Which of Bill Mauldin’s famous World War II duo is Willie? Which is
Joe? What was the big secret about E. Simms Campbell? Who was Funnyman? And
why? Which of a long roster of cowboy comic strips is the most authentic?

How
many of the stories alluded to in the foregoing sentences do you know? (A few
cryptic hints cluster at the end of this preview.)

The
book includes an incidental chapter of raw history that reels out the timeline
of milestones in the development of modern comics. Starting in mid-19th
century, it cites the dates for the first “comic book” in the United States,
the launch dates of American humor magazines that were the forcing bed for
cartooning, the debut date of the first color newspaper supplement, and the
creator of the first newspaper comic strip in color. (No, not Richard Outcault
with the Yellow Kid.)

Among
the cartoonists discussed are a ground-breaking African American and a woman
who broke into an industry dominated by men.

For
insiders who are scholars of the medium, Harvey reveals the origin of the word
“cartoon” as first applied to humorous drawings and explains why we call comic
books “comics” even though many of them aren’t at all funny. In another
chapter, he devises a working “description” of what comics are and offers
Frederick Burr Opper’s Happy Hooligan in early 1900 as the watershed
between the primitive, prototypal comic strip and the modern descendent
everyone recognizes on the pages of today’s newspapers.

The
second word in this tome’s title doesn’t serve quite as exotic a function as
the first, but it works just as hard. “Histories” is determinedly plural: the
book is a collection of little histories, not one big unified chronicle.
Although the arrangement of the chapters is roughly chronological, you needn’t
read them in order: each history is a stand-alone essay, and, except for the
first introductory chapter, they’re intended to be read one at a time and in
any order. As Disney historian Jim Korkis said recently about a book of his:
“Think of the book as a box of chocolates with different delights and maybe
some tasty hidden surprises to enjoy during a pleasant afternoon” (in Who’s
Afraid of the Song of the South?).

Cryptic
Explications. Bill
Hume drew a pin-up cartoon character, Babysan, in occupied Japan during the
Korean War. Bailin’ Wire Bill starred in a 1949 Denver Post weekly comic strip by
Dick Sebald; called Sage, Sand and Salt, it concerned the mundane
adventures of a 20th century rancher whose ranch had only one steer.
Abe Martin was a cracker barrel philosopher who showed up in Brown County,
Indiana and was eventually syndicated nation-wide. The Texas History Movies weren’t
movies at all: it is the title of a newspaper comic strip that recounted the
history of the Lone Star State. The longest running cartoon character is the
Weatherbird at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch—where it has appeared for
well over 110 years.

Mauldin’s
Willie and Joe switched identities during their run: at first, the hook-nosed
character was Joe, but by the time Mauldin’s unit invaded Sicily, he was
Willie. The secret about E. Simms Campbell that his syndicate and most of his
publishers wanted kept was that he was African American. Back in the 1940s, his
syndicated cartoon about beauteous young women, Cuties, would scarcely
have sold to newspapers of the South had the editors known. Funnyman was the
last invention of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster after they lost their Superman
berth at DC Comics.

The
most authentic appearing cowboy strip was Fred Harman’s Red Ryder; the
most authentic stories were told by Stan Lynde, first in Rick O’Shay and
then in Latigo —if you’re looking for serious authenticity; if humor is
your object, try Sage, Sand and Salt.

These
cryptic explanations only hint at the whole stories. For those, you need the
book itself. And the book includes pictures that are pretty rare, too.

Cartoons by Playboy’s founder Hugh Hefner, Kin Hubbard’s illustrations for Short
Furrows, Betty Swords’ pictures for the Male Chauvinist Pig Calendar of
1974. A generous sampling of Babysan, the Far East pin-up. Campbell’s
illustrations for Popo and Fifina. Red Ryder’s last bow.

Insider
Histories of Cartooning (192 8½ x 11-inch pages, 71 b/w illustrations) is
$35 in paperback, available at this website; click here for ordering
information. The hardcover casebound edition is $85 and is available only from
the University Press of Mississippi at www.upress.state.ms.us .